Surviving without meat....kinda...

Been awhile since I've written the blog, but really not a lot going on. But that's kind of a good thing, I mean, that I've settled into this plant based diet life so much now that it's just another day....and at the end of the day, there's no regrets. None, zippo. I mean, my decision to give up meat, poultry, and dairy 6 months ago was an experiment to see if food intake had a direct connection to my health. Not that I was in bad health, I've always worked out and kept in pretty good shape. I seldom ate fast food, but I was consuming a lot of meat and dairy. When I cooked, I cooked with a lot of butter....a lot!!! But I had talked myself into the fact that since I was making everything fresh, from scratch, that it was OK to consume, and hey, how can all these fresh ingredients be bad for me??? Now I'm not saying it's bad for everyone, I'm just writing my own story here. Not preaching, just relating my experience to whoever wants to read it. So the experiment worked for me, 6 months later I don't have any joint pain, my energy level is higher than ever, and I'm probably in the best physical shape that I've been in years. So, I've settled into this new diet without regrets. I can see and feel the results. Direct relationship between my health, and the food I take in. Winning....(as Charlie Sheen would say)

All that said, and again, not preaching here, but this works for me. But that's not to say that I don't miss a big old juicy hamburger with a chunk of bleu cheese drippin all over it. Red Robbin has a great Blue Cheese burger btw....but I digress....
 So, I was riding my bike in Manhattan the other day and as I was riding around the southern tip of the city, I happened to ride by Blue Smoke BBQ downtown....(here's the link to Blue Smoke), holy crap did that ever SMELL GOOD!!!! I came really close to dropping the bike and goin in there and having a pulled pork sandwich and a brewskie....or five, but I didn't, kept peddling, enjoyed the smell of a good BBQ and continued over to the Brooklyn Bridge. I had never even been on the Brooklyn Bridge before, and it was very cool to ride my bike over it. Over on the Brooklyn side, there was a lady and her son with a cart selling ice cold water and fresh cut, ice cold pineapple slices....you talk about delicious, cold and sweet, and extremely satisfying.

 I thought to myself that I was glad to smell the BBQ, but very glad to find this vendor to satisfy my thirst and hunger....peddled back to the Weehawken ferry back to Jersey satisfied with my 20 mile ride, and satisfied with my snack.....

But really, every now and then I'm gonna eat some meat, some poultry, an egg or two, but only if I can get it from an organic farm. If I'm going to consume meat or poultry, I want to know that it was raised in a humane manner, not from the factory farms that supply all the fast food, and grocery store chains. Not eating any of that shit. Now I'm on my soapbox.....the factory farms raise chickens and beef that are overcrowded, horrible places. The animals don't have any room to roam, let alone even turn around. They live their lives standing in their own excrement, get sick, and so they have to receive antibiotics to stay alive long enough to get trucked into the slaughter house, and then the meat gets hosed down with ammonia....no...not for me...ain't eating that. OK, end of rant.....so when I do want to eat some eggs, or poultry, or meat, I've found an organic farm in northwest jersey just down the road from where I go fly fishing on the Big Flat Brook...perfect. It's called Flatbrook Farm. (here's the link to Flatbrook Farms website). So a few weeks ago I went and got some eggs and two steaks there. I went with the intent of buying chicken that they had raised, but they didn't have any ready yet, told me to come back in a few weeks and they should have some ready for sale.....so I bought steaks and eggs instead. Made the steaks that night, but truthfully, it wasn't the mouth watering foodie event I was anticipating. Not that the beef was bad, it was great; great flavour, and no antibiotics, humanely raised beef. But I think I actually enjoyed my Salad Nicoise way better. It's a classic French salad that happens to have eggs and tuna fish in it. Lots of good protein.

Some of my friends say that since I eat an egg or meat once in a while, that I'm not really vegan. Well, never really claimed to be a full blown vegan. I've even been called a hypocrite. Well, then I'm a hypocrite. It's a plant based diet, not a plant exclusive diet. So, call it whatever you want. I call it working....I think the tally here is 1 steak in over 6 months, maybe 10 eggs in 6 months, and 1 chicken wing during the super bowl. Think I'm good here. But the whole point of today's blog was to say that after all this time, I really do not miss or crave meat or dairy. There are other things that are a lot healthier for me to consume...like ice cold fresh pineapples on the Brooklyn Bridge....

One last thing before I get my Sunday started here....found this stuffed tomato recipe the other day, made it a few nights ago and it was great!!! I substituted wild rice for the quinoa....the cilantro pesto was the bomb...I love cilantro. 

Here's the recipe:

Stuffed Tomatoes

So, have a great day everyone....please feel free to  comment and/or share this blog. Love to hear some feedback.

Eat clean, stay healthy!!!

John

13,000 year old food.....yup

Lentils...these things have been on the dinner plate for 13,000 years!!!! Can you believe it??? OK, not the dinner plate, maybe the dinner rock...probably didn't have plates back then...probably didn't have utensils back then...whatever, the point is, these things are awesome...you don't have to soak em over night, you just take them from the stupid plastic bag (probably didn't have plastic bags bags back then), and you cook em for 15 or 20 minutes.....and that's it. Been doin it for 13,000 goddamn years....(according to wiki...)Wiki...there's the link...

I've learned about these little things since goin on the old plant based diet I'm on...didn't want to run to the grocery store after my 20 mile bike ride today; feeling a little lazy, so I found some stuff in the pantry, including lentils, didn't know what to make with them, but I wound up with this amazing supper. It's Saturday, I went to the gym at 10 this morning and did a spin class...not a dry spot on me after that. Then came home, and since it was such an awesome day here in the NYC area, decided to get on my bike for the first time this year, and peddle around NYC for a few hours....it was awesome. I can ride my bike down to the Weehawken ferry and they'll take me and my bike to NYC for a few bucks...wound up riding around Central Park a few times and then back home. About 3 hours, 1200 calories, and 21 miles in all. Felt great!!!! Although, I do need a new bike. I have a 20 year old Trek mountain bike that I bought in Ventura, CA, when I lived there in 1995...had some cool mountain bike trails...anyway, it's not really a road bike. Everybody in Manhattan today (and every time I ride) frickin just zoom by me on there $3000 road bikes....I'm really not ready to pay that just for a bike...anyway, I digress, like I often do. Riding around the city is great. However, it took all my will power NOT to stop at the 100 million food carts along the way...they smelled soooooo goood!!!! Hot dogs, pretzels, halal food, kabobs, unbelievable aromas....but I didn't give in, and focused on making something healthy at home tonight. Finally made it home, exhausted, and then realized I had left the apartment a frickin mess when I left in my hurry this morning. I never do that. I have to, have to, have to, make the god damn bed, put everything away, do all my OCD things (clean out the sink, make sure there is no water droplets in it, shut all the closet doors, leave the bathroom a certain way, etc..ridiculous)...so, before I could get to supper, I did the chores from this morning. After that, I didn't want to go out to the grocery store, so I whipped up whatever I could find. I found lentils, collard greens, onions, organic tomato sauce in the fridge, fresh thyme, and threw it all together with some Indian spices and viola, a frickin excellent tasting, super healthy, supper!!!!
13,000 years old those little lentils are. Wonderin if the peeps 13,000 years ago ate a tasty meal from them like I just did.....Being on the plant based diet, those things are really good for me. Have a ton of protein, a lot of fiber, zero fat, all good shit.
So, I'm learning to cook all over again. I have a million recipe books, and there's a lot of good recipes on line, (Thug Kitchen is a really funny one....here's the link...Thug Kitchen ),but tonight I didn't follow a recipe, I just threw them all together, on a bed of polenta, and had me a delicious, nutritious, meal. Feeling good about it all. Can't remember when I've had this much energy, pain free, spring in my step, and absolutely loving it......if you anyone out there is thinking about adjusting your diet to improve your health, trust me, do it, and do it now. It's easy, it's a little different at first, not normal, but once you realize and feel the benefits of it, you'll love yourself for making the move.

Peace everyone!!!!!

Eat clean, feel better.....

on the road.....

Just a quick post...it's amazing how my eating habits have changed. I'm in Ridgecrest, CA right now for work for a few days, so I pulled into town today at around 11:30. Drove 3 hours from Ventura (my old home town...) and so I was hungry....went by my old go to healthy lunch place called "Pure Healing Foods" and gasp!!!!!! SHIT!!!! IT WASN'T THERE!!!!!!!!! WTF???? It was MY place!!! The total opposite of McCancer, Barfer King, Cancers Jr.,,,, just to name a few medical emergency lunch places....I was soooooo bummmed....how can this happen??? I thought they were doing a pretty good business....selling healthy sandwiches, smoothies, health food supliments...and now it's gone....egads....

So I went to Albertsons and bought a banana and some cherries and ate that for lunch.  Then I head into the lab and told my buddy about the Pure Healing Foods closing, and he says, "no, they didn't close, they just moved."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy.......so I''m going there tomorrow for lunch. Ridgecrest is a small desert town, not much goin on here, but guess what.....they still have some organic, healthy sandwiches for lunch....and some killer blueberry smoothies!!! Thank God........

So, anyway, if you're ever in or passing through Ridgecrest, CA, stop in Pure Healing Foods on Norma,  you'll feel better, and you're body will thank you......

Eat like you give a fuck.......

healthy always seems pretty....

Did ya ever notice that when you're lookin at joining a gym, or starting a diet, or discovering yoga, or going on a nice healthy vacation to clear your head, that it's always pretty...it's always attractive....pictures of healthy men and women, always in shape, smiling, and it always seems like perfect weather, right??? Why the heck is that? Are healthy people that much happier?? Are they always better looking than the rest of us??? WTF???  I've done a little investigating myself, just from my own experiences, during the 59 years of my existence on this earth, that, I believe, if you are happy and healthy, you are better looking....more attractive, and have a better personality. Yep....that's what I think. Thats what I've discovered. I don't think it's rocket science, look, if you have a cold or flu, you feel like shit, you look like shit. If you just came out of the gym after a great workout and feeling on top of your game, you look great, and you feel great, which means, you are more attractive to people...it's easy. My point of all this is, if you feel good, you are a better person on this earth, and you can do more good for people, do more good for your family, friends, and yourself! So how do you do that??? I started by eating better. By eating this plant based diet. I feel way better, I've lost a bunch of weight, and I hope to God I am more attractive without my big old gut sticking over my pants.... Dude, that's a no brainer. Eating better, getting more exercise, equals feeling way better about yourself. It's self help....and the easiest self help there is. No Prozac, no Xanax, no other bullshit medicine, just good clean food and a little excercise folks.

I'm in the middle of a 2 week business trip on the west coast. I used to live out here in Ventura, Ca, years ago. Great place to live. But even out here, with a perfect climate of 72 degrees all year long, perfect beaches, nearby mountains, flowers filling the air with their great fragrances, there are some people that are still miserable....and I truly believe it is their diet and their outlook. Eat shit, feel like shit, no matter of your surroundings.
I drove up to Mammoth Lakes last weekend, quite a long drive, but I'm not one to sit in a hotel and watch TV for hours on end; I'd rather go to someplace beautiful, so I suck it up and drive for hours.... First place I stop in while in Mammoth Lakes is Stellar Brew Cafe...it's an organic coffee/tea food shop that's super chill, and really great food, juice, and coffee. Great way to start the day at 10,000 feet in the mountains. Grab a vegan wrap there and tuck it into the backpack and hike away. Last Saturday there was a fresh coating of snow up there. I was the first one out on the trails, feeling blessed to be in the middle of such a beautiful place, and feeling super healthy and energized. I know it's my diet that gives me this energy, I know it's because I'm eating clean.

It was great!!! Eating clean, on a clean, fresh trail with clean snow, 10,000 feet in the clean mountain air.....felt super energized. The few people I met on the trail that morning were all smiling...all very happy and super excited to be out there!!! I guess my point here is, when you are healthy, you tend to be happier, and you tend to eat better, and make better decisions for your body. It's a circle, it comes back around, when you exercise more, you tend to eat healthier. When you sit on the couch, you tend to eat crap, processed foods, chips, crackers, frozen pizza, and then all that makes you feel sluggish and you don't want to exercise, no matter how beautiful outside it is.
So, yeh, the gym ads, the yoga ads, the hiking ads, the healthy eating ads, all have attractive people in them,,,because they are attractive, they are happy, they are living life to the fullest and feeding their bodies the right foods....I firmly believe that. Ask any athlete how important good nutrition is, and ask them if/when they eat fast food anything, how it makes them feel.....

One more last shout out to a great restaurant I've discovered in Ventura, CA. It's called the Himalayan....it's awesome....great food, a lot of vegan options, it's basically Nepal/Indian based cuisine...spicy if you want it, either way, super clean and super healthy!!!! Love it....go there if you are ever visiting Ventura....I know my friends that live in the Ventura area all have been there.

Eat healthy and clean peeps.....we only get one chance at this....NEVER EAT ANYTHING THAT HAS A COMMERCIAL....that's an easy way to check if you're eating clean!!!!

Peace

Now it's not a diet...it's my life, and I've never felt better...

It's May 1, wow!!!!.....May day.....May day....now that I just wrote that date, I'm sitting here thinking, hey, maybe that's what my frickin body was screamin at the end of last year...ha ha...."mayday, mayday, we're going down"....It's a call for help...one last drastic, desperate call.....

I was a little overweight, not by a lot, but I had the big ol' 58 year old gut...frequent occurrences of gout, all kinds of other joint pains, and, even though I worked out occasionally, still generally had low energy...very unlike me.....I'm usually a pretty high energy, semi whacky, close to weirdo, energy...always up for trouble....  But at the end of last year, it all came to logger heads....all came to a screeching halt....so something had to give...after looking in the mirror, seriously looking in the mirror, because, what I do sometimes, I "glance" at the mirror, because I don't really want to process what I'm seeing....so after seriously staring at my fat self in the mirror, I decided that was it...it's not going to take care of itself, I ain't wakin up tomorrow with some six pack abs....so....the adventure began....listened to the big "mayday, mayday, mayday..." that my self was callin out.....

So...fast forward 4 months....here we are, May 1st. Down 20 pounds, no gout, no joint pains, incredible energy, and really, really, just feeling so good. I was talking to one of my friends at work today in the lunch line. He knows I went vegan, I said that i do have a little cheese every now and then, and that I've had fish twice in the last 4 months, but no other dairy or meat at all. A guy overhearing our conversation asked me how do I feel??? So I told him truthfully that I've never ever felt better. That I didn't start this change to make myself "feel better", but an attempt to ease gout and arthritic joints...., but now it's turned out to relieve those symptoms and has also made me feel just generally sooooooo much better.....wake up with more energy, walk down the mile long hallways at work with a big spring in my step....get through an hour of ballroom dancing lessons all sweaty but super energized.....oh, yeh, ballroom dancing lessons....that's another topic....salsa, waltz, oh yeh,,,,twirling my gal around the dance floor....but I digress.

So, here's some food to make you feel good!!! Made these a few times in the past few weeks. Vietnamese Spring Rolls....these things are awesome...really easy and fun to make!!! You can basically add whatever you want to these things...think of it as a see through tortilla...tonight I made them with sliced carrots, sliced cabbage for some more crunch, scallions, bean sprouts, cilantro, mint, sliced black seedless grapes, sliced papaya, and crushed peanuts!!! Frickin AWESOME!!! You can dip it into some homemade sauce, but I used a store bought sauce called "Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce", it's a classic vietnamese style sauce with chilies, carrots, and garlic...it's a beautiful thing people!!!!   OK, go back and read those ingredients......there's a lot of flavor going on there!!!! And all vegan...all good, not bad peeps!!! No animals were hurt in this recipe...ha ha...(except the pack mules that had to carry the chilies in some 3rd world country....), but, hey, that's their job.....

I paired that with some grilled cauliflower and broccoli. (on a grill plate on the stove top...easy),put a bunch of Moroccan spices on that, (olive oil, turmeric, cumin, paprika, chilli flakes, himalayan pink salt), which was awesome....
Walked away from that meal feeling like Muhammad Ali...a champ of champs...felt clean and good!!!

So May day peeps.....if your body is screamin "Mayday".....don't be afraid to change your diet like I did....you'll be happy, and your body will be happy to answer that mayday call with a new, healthy, non GMO, organic, food input....you will love yourself all over again, AND have renewed energy!!!

Happy May folks!!! Eat like you give a fuck........

wait, what??? peanut butter is in here???

Sittin on the balc on a Friday night smokin a stogie (thank you Sonny) and sippin an after dinner cordial...as my great Dad used to say when he drank an after dinner drink..."...it fills in the cracks..." Genius.....a little Tia Maria, which my sister and I , God rest her beautiful soul, used to partake in much to the chagrin of our then spouses....so we kind of over did it every now and then...hey, you only go around once, as far as we know...no one has ever come back to confirm that, but that's another story. Soooooo, I sit here on my balcony gazing at the beautiful sight of NYC across the Hudson, very content and satisified after cooking an African dinner. I say African dinner because thats what it said in the title of the recipe....keep in mind that Africa is way bigger than the USA, geographically, so saying I cooked an African dinner is like saying I cooked an American breakfast when I made grits....no....totally misleading. So the recipe was titled "African Peanut Stew".....well, that didn't exactly sound to frickin appetizing.....I read on...and, it was, apparently, a recipe from North Africa, probably Morocco, (based on the ingredient list), and so I made it....and it was excellent!! All vegan, all super fresh, all organic......some people just know how to eat.....I found it when I was searching vegan recipes and found the site "Clean Eating"...I'll post the link below. It was easy to make, had an incredible depth of flavor, and is super healthy......sometimes you have to really, really, open your mind to things and just let them in....dive in, and it gets so good.....the new flavors are really great for you body....of course, they are only NEW FOR YOU, because we get stuck in the same old rut....same old shit...so if you want your life to be different, you have to be able to try different things, different tastes, different flavors....I love that. I'm all about change, it makes life exciting....who wants to live their entire life doing the SAME OLD STUFF???? There is more to it...there is more to experience!!!!! Take it all in, get healthy.....no reason to accept the fact that if when you grow older that you have to be ill, or in pain, or not feeling any energy....bullshit...you don't have to do it....I'm tellin ya, for me, it's all about the food intake....I swear....eat shit, feel like shit....eat good, feel good....and I feel good...never felt better in my life.....I've started this blog to document my changes based on my diet...good or bad...so so far...it's been good....if it turns bad, I'll be honest and post that too....if it turns out that eating McDonalds and other processed foods is good for you, I'll post it....but, so far, my theory is correct....all that processed crap is exactly crap...leads to illness and disease, and is totally allowed by our government....if I were king of the forest (my favorite saying...) I would ban the shit that they are selling to people...make them sell real food...no chemicals....did you know in Norway, they wont allow ANY GMO foods in the country????? Not even in the country, let alone sell them....and you know why?? Because the citizens still have control....they have people in office that are not in bed with Monsanto, Bayer, or other big Ag corps....like we have in the old USA.....anyway...on a rant, but, hey,it's my blog, so, you can check out if you want, or you can read on.......
here's the link, by the way..it's an awesome, super tasty, recipe...

http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/recipes/dinner-tonight/african-peanut-stew/

....live for today...eat for tomorrow.....have a great weekend

John

no meat, all taste.....

it's been so long since I've had a piece of meat I can't even remember.....and it's been so long since I've had a big old gut around my waist I can't remember that either.....that's a good thing! Feeling pretty light these days, feeling good. Haven't had any joint pain in 3 and a half months (knock on wood), but I'm leaning towards the fact that it was my original hunch....my joint pains were a result of my diet, not my age. 6 months ago, I was having to hold on to the bed, chair, door frame, and whatever else I could use to support me in the morning when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom.....I thought, wow, 58 years old and this is it??? This is what happens?? I can't get up in the morning without pain??? I felt like an old fart...I wasn't ready for that. I thought the pain was from all the racquetball  I played for years and years; jogged at lunch time for a lot of years, and generally thought that I just finally destroyed my knees and ankles. But then I looked around at other "old guys" and somehow they were still jogging, still walking OK....etc, so I figured it really wasn't self inflicted wounds, so maybe I should troubleshoot this thing. All my life, I've worked on complicated electronic warfare systems. Love it...the more complicated, the better...the bigger the problem, the better...made a living doing this...still am. So I figured I can troubleshoot my body problems as well, hey, it's a system, takes input, does functions, creates output...boil it down and make it simple. So I read a million articles, watched a million documentaries, and everything pointed to diet....diet, diet, diet. So I cut to the chase...I decided to take on the diet that Okinawans, some of the Greek Islands, and some other cultures in the Mediterranean area have. Basically, pretty much plant based diets, little meat, little dairy. I stepped it up a notch and went all vegan, which means, NO MEAT, NO DAIRY, just plants...just stuff that was grown in the earth. And it worked...it worked,...it worked....I haven't had joint pain since the end of December...I have high energy, I'm slimming down, and I've really never felt better in a long, long, time...

Today I was sitting at work thinking about what I should cook for dinner....I always do that during the day...try to get a new, fresh recipe....so I found a website that had recipes for "meatless Mondays"....even though it was Tuesday......supposedly it is a site to help people that want to reduce their meat intake a step at a time....so they have some pretty good recipes....this one tonight was pretty tasty!!!

This bad boy was full of flavor....it's eggplant, roasted, and then broiled, on a bed of lentils and rice with mint, cilantro, garlic, and pomegranate.....frickin excellent!!! All plant based, all very satisfying........let me know if you want the recipe....I'll post it if anyone is interested....

Stay healthy and happy folks.....live for today....eat for tomorrow....

a day in the life...for my niece

One of my nieces asked me to post a sample menu for one day in this plant based diet i'm on.....i don't like calling it vegan, because a true vegan is against killing or harming any animals, not just for food, but for clothing, shoes, belts, purses, wallets, car interiors...you get the picture. I'm not there yet...probably never will be. Maybe if I started when i was 10 or something...but, um, 59 may be a little late for that drastic of a life style change. Lets keep it at the just eating healthy level for now.  Actually, I've always been semi against animal cruelty. Semi....not fully. I have thrown my share of cats in swimming pools....don't hate me. Cats can, and will, walk on water...... But I remember when I was a little kid in Ashland, PA, my dad and I used to go on hikes. In the fall, late fall, when all the leaves were down, I remember I helped him build a little shelter out of branches and downed trees. He said we were building it for the animals, so they could have a place to stay when it snows....I'll never forget that. The other thing I remember from being a kid is Reidlers farm. Our neighbors, Paul and Betty Reidler, had a farm a few miles outside of town. In the summer, sometimes we would drive out there and have a picnic, cookout, swim in their FREEZING cold pool, and then walk out in the fields with a bucket of corn. The deer would see us with the bucket, and slowly, shyly, walk up to us and actually eat corn out of our hands....it was an amazing experience. In my teenage years, all my buddies hunted...I just could never do that...couldn't kill one. The only time I'd be able to kill one is if I was hungry....other than that, I'll just go to the store and get food. Anyway, thats some of the early memories of how I viewed wildlife, Maybe thats why I still love to hike to this day....especially if I can catch a glimpse of a deer or anything else in its natural home....

Anyways...So, for my niece, a sample of a daily plant based diet.....

• Breakfast.....typically, I don't eat breakfast, if I do, it's on the weekends when I have a little more relax time in the morning. Usually just a cup of fresh ground coffee. I actually have a hand coffee bean grinder that I bought on Amazon a while ago. I put that in a French press, and have the frickin greatest cup of coffee ever....one while shaving, then another for the 10 mile drive to work. But on the weekends, when I do eat breakfast, I eat a bowl of oatmeal. Steel cut oats with some fruit on top, usually blueberries or strawberries, with some honey or agave syrup on it, and I also add some soy milk. Vanilla flavored. Has a lot of protein in it. 

I just so happen to have a nice pic I took a few months ago of my oatmeal and blueberries....with honey, honey....ha ha. Maybe I can get into the food photography business...

• Then for lunch, I take leftovers from last nights dinner. If not, then I either go to the company cafeteria and get a salad, not a very big one, with oil and vinegar, and all the legumes I can put on it for protein. A side of fruit salad usually, and if the soup is vegetarian, I'll get a small bowl of that. If I go work out at lunch, there is a place right beside the gym that has vegetarian crepes...the Greek one is awesome.  All organic ingredients, super fresh. It's called 3rd Wave Crepes in Lyndhurst, NJ.....stop by if you are ever in that area.
• For the famous afternoon snack, I walk to the vending machine and stare at it....stare at the goddam chips and crackers I used to eat...stare at the food from the factories....I swear to God they put some chemicals in that shit that makes it addictive and craved.....so I stare at it....and then claim victory for not putting money in the machine.....pat myself on the back, go back to the lab and grab a handful of almonds and a glass of water....usually a few handfuls of almonds...again, a lot of protein packed in those little suckers. That usually gets me to supper.
• Then I leave work, head to the grocery store. Pick up what I'm gonna make that night. I usually have something in mind. Usually look up a recipe on one of the thousand vegan/vegetarian sites and one will catch my eye. For instance, tonight I made vegan enchiladas....I thought they were good. Basically consisted of steamed potatoes, beans, ( I used black beans cause i love them), onion, green pepper, garlic, mushrooms, vegetable stock, green chili peppers from the can, and a bunch of spices (cumin, chili pepper, sage, salt and pepper), and then wheat tortillas with enchilada sauce from the jar.....pretty tasty. 

So, that's pretty much a day's worth of food intake for me...

The thing is....I think you have to like/love to cook to be successful at the diet change....I think it would be hard for me to stay on track if I had to eat out at a vegan/vegetarian place every day/night. Me, I love the whole process...I love researching the menu, picking out the food, bringing it home and slicing and dicing and cooking....I love that. And once I got to the point where I could actually make some complex dishes that were vegan, then I really started feeling satisfied with it...now I'm into the 4th month....I'll have some cheese every now and then, we had a GREAT cheese fondue a few weeks ago...it was awesome...bought some great cheeses from Murrays cheese shop in the West Village....then I had some fish at my birthday dinner with friends at Lure restaurant in SOHO; so I don't deprive myself entirely....but, for the most part, I simply eat a plant based diet. Never felt better in my life.......and I'm hopin my body thanks me and can be better equipped to fight off disease....that's the goal...

Peace

PS....I'll try to compile a list of links to sites that I've found with good recipes....next post...

Hippie Curry

So, continuing on with the plant based diet discussions, I had mentioned in a previous post that one of the things I've learned in the past 3 months is how to cook Indian food.  I've liked Indian food on occasion, as a matter of fact, come to think of it, one of the best meals I've ever had was in an Indian restaurant in Amsterdam. A few years ago, I went to Amsterdam to check out a music festival. It was called "Jam in the Dam"....clever name, and a really good festival, too. Anyway, one late afternoon I was strolling the streets and canals of Amsterdam, (if you've never been there, you should go....), taking in the shops, the smells, and the people. Of course some of the shops sell pot and hash, and some of the people smell like pot and hash.....but I digress. I was getting a little hungry; it was around supper time, and I noticed an Indian restaurant on the block. Looked kind of high end, a little on the fancy side, and I thought it was a little weird to see an Indian restaurant in Amsterdam, but I am a naive American, and didn't realize that Indian cuisine is all over Europe. So I looked at the menu, walked up the steps, (it was on the second floor), and sat down by myself...which I never really minded doing...I travel so much, I usually wind up eating a lot of meals alone. I ordered a fish dinner, with a lot of sides, and let me tell you, it was one of the tastiest meals I've ever had....unforgettable. I'll never remember the name of the dish, but that experience really opened my eyes to Indian cuisine.

So, tonight, I searched on line for some Indian food to make, and stumbled across this dish called "Hippy Currie" ....ha ha...loved the title. Apparently, it originated in the 60's from a commune in Marin County, California.....pretty much hippy ville back in the day. So I made it, tasted outstanding. The link is below if you care to give it a try. Simple to make, and I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow....yay.....

http://www.thekitchn.com/heres-a-simple-curry-that-130340

Eat hippy....I mean happy.....

John

90 Days...

Well, it's been 90 days since I started the vegan experiment. I can honestly say it's been pretty easy. I'm totally into it. I do that, though, I get on a roll with something, then I dive all the way in....whether it's hiking, guitar, cooking, sailing....all that shit I've done throughout my life...I'm always all in!!! So I was into the vegan/vegetarian thing deep...still am. I started with this just wanting to lose a little weight, get a little healthier, and do a little disease prevention....all the articles and research I've done over the past few months made me realize that the food we eat has a direct effect on our health. You eat shit, you eventually feel like shit. So, in the year or two prior to doin the vegan experiment, I would suffer every month or so with really painful Gout and or arthritis. It got to be ridicoulous. There were times when I got up in the morning I really couldn't walk..had to hold on to whatever I could hold on to, and work my way to the bathroom. I was only 58. This was not happening. I was always healthy up to this point in my life. So, after seeing a few doctors and taking the stupid pills to relieve the joint pain, I decided to change my diet; see if it worked. See if, by going vegan, eating only plant based food, if I could ease the joint pains.....well....it apparently worked...I haven't had one ache or stiff knee/ankle/toe in 3  months......it's almost to scary to claim victory this soon. But really, I've never, ever, felt better in my life. Not just the joint pain thing, but just everyday energy levels...my waist is down 5 inches from Jan 2, my weight is down 17 pounds, my blood pressure is 110 over 70, it's frickin great!!!!! So, I'm not done yet. I'm going to continue this little life change and stay on this path. The hardest part of it was cooking. I love love love to cook. It took a little while for me to realize that vegan meals are very unlike what I was plating in the past. In the past I would plate a huge meat entry, some veggies, maybe some rice or potato. But when you cook vegan, it's kind of like one or two dishes that make up the meal. At first it was just weird...just seemed weird eating like one thing, even though it was very complete meal. All the nutrients were wrapped up in one dish. I discovered Indian cuisine along the way, which is very healthy and some recipes are time consuming to make, which I loved....I love the process....the more complicated dish, the better.
So, anyway, just wanted to jot this down...that I made it 90 days...that I actually reached my goal, but I don't consider it the finish line...I'm doin the long haul...like I said, now it's more of a life style change and disease prevention gig.....onward.....through the food!!!!

Day 1, the numbers have to go down

So, wanted to document this little experiment I'm doing. It's always good to, once the event is over, look back and read how it all started. Sometimes its good, sometimes not so good. Hopefully, this will be a good thing. So I'm going to start a no dairy, no meat, whole foods diet. Yup. They call it vegan, but I don't want to put myself in the vegan category yet. The aim is to eat like a vegan, with results of losing a little weight, lowering the blood pressure, and lowering cholesterol. All good things. I mean, I always have, for the most part, eaten pretty healthy. Not just eating, but cooking. I love to cook, love the whole process. Choosing, slicing, dicing, the whole nine yards. Love the whole process. To the point where, if I ever get laid off or fired or whatnot from my engineering job, I think I'd go to culinary school. Just to learn more, not to really work in a sweaty busy kitchen in Manhattan, but just to increase the knowledge base. I took a few cooking classes at ICE in Manhattan, they were cool, you learn so much from those folks. Definetly worth the money. Anyway, I digress. So, I want to start this, not gonna call it a diet, I'm gonna call it a change of diet, to really get healthier. I'm also kind of big with the big food companies and the whole way they produce and treat their meat and dairy products. It's a fricking disgrace. I'm not really blaming them, because they have to keep up with demand. The world is eating more meat and poultry than ever before. So these big huge farms are just chicken and beef mass production lines. The animals get treated like shit, but I'll get more into that later. Basically, I just want to start off this blog to document my progress. So, I weighed myself this morning, Jan 2, 2015, and I weigh 201.6. I measured my waist and its a whopping 42 inches!!!!!! And to top all this off, my blood pressure is a ridicolous 151 over 101!!!!!!!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE YET!!!!! So, I'm on my way. All the numbers have to come down. I watched a few documentaries yesterday, while nursing the New Years hangover, on Netflix. One was called Forks over Knives; the other one was called Vegucated, which was excellent. It takes 3 random New Yorkers, (selected from answering a Craigs List ad., and changes their normal meat and dairy eating diets to a vegan diet for 12 weeks. Blood work done before and after, and the results are exactly what I want. Of course, during the documentary, it shows big ag poultry and beef factories, footage that would make Jeffrey Dahmer quezzy, and lots of interviews with Phd's which are experts in the nutrition field. Good stuff. Very motivating. Watch these both (on Netflix) and you will never eat fast food again. I don't eat fast food at all. I wised up to that years ago. It's not really food, it's garbage. It's certainly contributing to the health issues in this country and other developed nations around the world. 
So, now I have to get some good vegan recipes. If anyone out there has some, leave a comment or put it on my facebook page. And as I go forth with this, I'll post some here also. So for now, I'm off to surf the vegan internet for tonights recipe.....(I still get to cook meat, Adora is not doing the vegan thing.....so my cooking skills for non vegan shouldn't suffer...)